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November 22, 2013

This is the final installment of the plates of Incroyables et Merveilleuses de 1814. Part one is here and part two is here.

I'm really loving the simple but effective hem treatment here!

Nice colors! Let's get a closeup of that pretty face (and bonnet!)

I WOULD LIKE THOSE SHOES PLEASE.

I think you overstuffed your bosom there a little, sweetheart!

Another nice hem!

This one is so great! First, let's examine the lady in greater detail:

From top to bottom she is spectacular! Great parasol, amazing natural waist spencer with super long ribbons, and great little boots peeking out there! AND! You can even see her pink underpetticoat through the pocket slit! But the best- THE BEST!- thing about this one is the look on their faces:

November 17, 2013

While trolling the archives of Bunka Gakuen Library (oh, you treasure trove!), I came across the book Incroyables et Merveilleuses de 1814 By Georges Gatine. There is nothing about the book itself, but I was able to cobble together a bit about it from the interwebs. It appears to be a book published around 1815 in Paris and was meant to be used for prints. It is on a larger scale than most fashion magazines of the day. It started out with the plates alternating between male and female, but quickly moved to almost entirely female (with a few military chaps thrown in for good measure). It borders on satire: not quite as crazy as Le Bon Genre, but certainly a bit exaggerated. I would imagine much like our InStyle and Vogue don't represent what most of us wear on a daily basis. I found the plates utterly charming, so I thought I would share them here with you. This isn't all of them- I left out the fellows- but you can find all of the plates at Bunka Gakuen.
I'll be posting these in 3 parts, since there are quite a few of them:

November 15, 2013

You probably know that my first love is fashion plates, so when I began making reproduction collet necklaces, they were one of the sources I turned to first. With the exception of original pieces, they are the best source to find documentation for the jewelry of the Regency period (and 18th Century, when available). Fashion plates are particularly useful, because you can see how and where they were worn.

When I went back and started looking for them, I was shocked by how many I found. Even though I have looked at thousands of fashion plates, I never really noticed what kind of jewelry our lovely historic inspirations were wearing. Don't you just love how the same source can keep giving and giving and giving?

Here are a few detailed images, all from Ackermann's Repository of the Arts.

Opera Dress, April 1810

"Ear-rings and Necklace of Pink Topaz"

Ball Dress, March 1810

I don't have the description of this, but I love that she is wearing a matching bracelet (?) shoved up her arm!

(EDIT: Thank you to a reader who had the description of this plate: "Head-dress, al la Diana, of pearl; necklace and armlets, &c. of the same" So these are pearls, and those are called armlets. Oh la la!)

Ball Dress, May 1809

Another example of the matching arm bracelets!

Evening Dress, January 1810

Mourning Dress, 1809.

I'm unsure of what these stones/beads would be, because she is in mourning, but I was struck by their size. This is no delicate strand!

And here are a few more, from Fashions of London and Paris (Sadly, most of these come sans descriptions or even titles of the dresses!):

February, 1808.

June, 1805

1808

Costume de Grand Parure, September 1803

And details from the wonderful plate from 1811, French Vauxhall:

And the big version, because I love you!

I hope this provides some inspiration for the wearing of your collet parures!